The coffeehouse Neugröschl attracts all the town’s eccentrics, even though – or perhaps precisely because – the owner opens and closes when the fancy takes him, and sometimes declares it a car repair shop. His temporary waitress Clara, the mysterious heart of the novel, fascinates all kinds of men and triggers the most astonishing metamorphoses.
It all starts with a traditional conflict: inventor and risk-loving Roth has screwed up yet another of his brilliant business ideas and needs a new identity. Worse still, he doesn’t like his daughter Clara’s boyfriend, a gardener, and vegetarian to boot. While Roth reinvents himself as Grün, Valentin Kron amuses himself with Clara, but his happiness is short-lived because Clara loses interest in him and turns her attentions to cellist Stanjic. Urban cowboy Stanjic broods over a Schubert interpretation, runs a record shop as a sideline and before long is also confronted with Clara’s fickleness. Among the other men Clara has loved and left are the stone collector, florist and universal autodidact Lenauand bar and orchestra pianist Wurlich. All frequent the Neugröschl coffeehouse, some know each other personally, and eventually they all come together. And each has his own fascinating eccentricity, unusual interests and personal instabilities.
Verena Roßbacher generously uses her imagination, the ability to spin a tale, the fine feel for language and bawdy sense of humour. She captivates readers with a story about love, development and transformation – and with her ability to make her characters come to life through language. Readers will remember Clara and her men for some time to come. A dazzling debut novel and a literary discovery!
